Persitara North Jakarta

Persitara North Jakarta
Full name	Persatuan Sepakbola Indonesia Jakarta Utara
Nickname(s)	Laskar Si Pitung; (Pitung's Warriors)
Founded	29 December 1979; 45 years ago
Ground	Tugu Stadium; North Jakarta (Official) Soemantri Brodjonegoro Stadium ; South Jakarta (Selected Match)
Capacity	4,000
Owner	PT. Persitara Sejahtera
Chairman	Octavian Syah
Manager	Suaib
Coach	Joko Kuspito
League	Liga 4
2023–24	2nd, (Jakarta zone); 4th in Group G, (National)
Home colours	Away colours

Persatuan Sepakbola Indonesia Jakarta Utara (simply known as Persitara) is an Indonesian football club based in North Jakarta, Jakarta. This club plays in the Liga 4. The club's home base are the Tugu Stadium.^[2]

History

The history of the founding of Persitara itself cannot be separated from the role of Persija as the parent of Jakarta football. In the 1970s, Persija, which was still part of the West Java PSSI Regional Commission, initiated the formation of its own Regional Commission in Jakarta. The reason is that the Macan Kemayoran, Persija's nickname, are having difficulty accommodating the increasing number of local football clubs.

The formation of the Jakarta PSSI Regional Commission coincided with the establishment of "other Persija", namely Persijatimut (North-East) and Persijaselbar (South-West). Persijatimut split and then Persitara officially stood alone with the name of the Persatuan Sepakbola Indonesia Jakarta Utara (Persitara) in 1985.

Initially, the club nicknamed Laskar Si Pitung was founded in 1979 (some sources say 1975) using the name Persija Timur Utara (Persijatimut) and only then in 1985 did this club officially use the name Persitara North Jakarta which was considered to truly represent the people of North Jakarta. Persitara was one of the contestants in the 2008–09 Indonesia Super League, the most elite competition in Indonesia at that time.

In the Perserikatan era, Persitara's best achievement occurred in the 1985–86 season, when it successfully broke into the Perserikatan Premier Division. As with other football clubs from Jakarta, Persitara is run solely with the support of the Jakarta Regional Budget (APBD). However, since its founding, Persitara has not received the same amount of public funds as its 'older sibling', Persija Jakarta.^[3]

The peak was when the leadership of Jakarta was held by Governor Sutiyoso for two terms, Persitara was not taken into account at all and was only considered as a complementary team. Moreover, with the emergence of the slogan "Jakarta Satu", which is only one football club that appears to represent Jakarta. It is seen from the APBD funds obtained. Persija received APBD funds of around 22 billion IDR, while Persitara only got 3 billion IDR.^[4]^[5]

Not receiving any attention from Jakarta Provincial Government, Persitara's achievements dropped drastically, to the point of being in the lowest division, Second Division in the 2002 season. Since then, Persitara, which was accepted as a member of the Football Association of Indonesia since 1980, has started to rebuild the club. In 2006, the club finally made it to the Indonesia Super League, which was its second season.

The 2010s were a difficult time for Persitara, after being relegated from the highest division, the dualism of the competition at that time, Indonesia Super League (ISL) and Indonesia Premier League (IPL) in 2011 to 2013 was getting hotter, the emergence of Batavia Union in the IPL competition split the club, Batavia Union itself is a splinter club from Persitara North Jakarta which was founded in 2010.^[6] In addition, the acute financial crisis that is eating away at the club is starting to show its effects. In the 2014 Premier Division, Persitara is in arrears in player salaries. The club management was even unable to rent Tugu Stadium so they failed to hold a home match. Persitara was then relegated to Third Division.

For the 2024–25 season, the formation of a new league under the PSSI Provincial Association places the club in Liga 4 Jakarta zone.